Contribute to the needs of the saints, pursue hospitality.^[1]  I’ll forego the table of Scripture this time.  I’m convinced now that I’m not forcing the situation.  Paul was describing love empowered by the fruit of the Holy Spirit, not offering obedience to his own rules as the true path to living eternal life.  And there was always something arbitrary about what I was trying to do.  Kindness is the most obvious aspect of the fruit of the Spirit to effect contributing, but since I have used it already I would’ve said faithfulness.  And as I consider the needs of the saints I tend to focus on Love is patient.^[2]

But the fruit of the Spirit isn’t really divisible into love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control any more than love is divisible into the constituent parts of Paul’s definition in 1 Corinthians.  I can’t spoof the fruit of the Spirit by striving to be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled, though I’m not sure I would have understood that if I hadn’t tried to do it on my own.

The Greek word translated contribute above is κοινωνοῦντες (a form of κοινωνέω).  It means to share, or to have in common: All who believed were together and held everything in common (κοινὰ, a form of κοινός).^[3]  The group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one said that any of his possessions was his own, but everything was held in common (κοινά, a form of κοινός).^[4]  Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, the author of Hebrews wrote, [Jesus] likewise shared in their humanity.^[5]  And this brings up another aspect of the concept common.

The Greek word translated share above is κεκοινώνηκεν, another form of κοινωνέω, or a form of κοινόω.  In the NET online if I click on the English word share I am taken to κοινωνέω, if I click on κεκοινώνηκεν in the parallel Greek I am taken to κοινόω.  Perhaps this is just a mistake.  It happens sometimes.  In Revelation 20:10 for instance if I click on lake I am taken to λίμνη (‘lake’), if I click on the parallel Greek λίμνην I am taken to λιμήν (‘harbor’ or ‘haven’).  But I’ll pursue this as if it is a possible understanding of the Greek rather than a coding mistake because all of these words share κοινός as their common root.

Jews from the province of Asia^[6] accused Paul: he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled (κεκοίνωκεν, a form of κοινόω) this holy place!^[7]  If this is a potential meaning of κεκοινώνηκεν it accentuates how He who became Jesus profaned, defiled or made Himself common as He shared (μετέσχεν, a form of μετέχω) in our humanity.  This isn’t difficult to grasp; a common woman was one shared by many.

I want to take a moment to discuss who He-who-became-Jesus is.  To most of my contemporaries He is the unknown Son of God who declared the known Jehovah as his Father.  I think of Him as the known y^ehôvâh (יהוה) who became flesh and blood as Ἰησοῦς and revealed his as yet unknown Father.  Admittedly, I would arrive at a stalemate on this issue from Scripture.  I lean the way I do because of personal experience.  That Jehovah killed someone or sent someone to die, even his own son, isn’t really news, certainly not good news.

If y^ehôvâh became a man  Ἰησοῦς and gave his own human life to satisfy his own righteous vengeance against human sin, if He created human beings knowing full well He would ultimately pay this price for them, that is news, very good news.  And it helps to explain the great pains He took,^[8] and continues to take, to demonstrate the failure of any other means of redemption.  And with this understanding I can appreciate how y^ehôvâh bowed to the higher authority of his Father’s will, authority which supersedes all law or covenant, as He relented over the evil that he had said he would do to his people^[9] at Sinai.

So what makes a person common, defiled or profane?  What defiles (κοινοῖ, another form of κοινόω) a person is not what goes into the mouth; it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles (κοινοῖ, another form of κοινόω) a person.^[10]  The things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile (κοινοῖ, another form of κοινόω) a person.^[11]  Jesus wasn’t talking about disease here.  For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.^[12]

This knowledge wasn’t from y^ehôvâh’s omniscience but from  Ἰησοῦς’ personal experience.   Ἰησοῦς knew (ἐγίνωσκεν, a form of γινώσκω) what was in man (ἀνθρώπῳ, a form of ἄνθρωπος).^[13]  God made the one who did not know (γνόντα, another form of γινώσκω) sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.^[14]  The things that defile a person are already inside a person.  These are the things that defile (κοινοῦντα, another form of κοινόω, or ‘make common’) a person (ἄνθρωπον, another form of ἄνθρωπος); it is not eating with unwashed hands that defiles (κοινοῖ, another form of κοινόω) a person (ἄνθρωπον, another form of ἄνθρωπος).^[15]

So are we all common, defiled, profane?  Certainly not, Lord, Peter protested to the voice which commanded him to slaughter and eat in a trance as he prayed, for I have never eaten anything defiled (κοινὸν, a form of κοινός) and ritually unclean!^[16]  In his trance Peter didn’t believe Jesus’ teaching, There is nothing outside of a person that can defile (κοινῶσαι, another form of κοινόω) him by going into him.^[17]  The voice didn’t chide his unbelief but said simply, What God has made clean, you must not consider ritually unclean (κοίνου, another form of κοινόω)!^[18]  We take this to mean that all foods are clean.^[19]  But Peter said, God has shown me that I should call no person defiled (κοινὸν, a form of κοινός) or ritually unclean.^[20]

Macedonia and Achaia are pleased to make some contribution (κοινωνίαν, a form of κοινωνία) for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem,^[21] Paul wrote the believers in Rome.  I think it’s important to consider the origin of the poor among the saints in Jerusalem:  All who believed were together and held everything in common, and they began selling their property and possessions and distributing the proceeds to everyone, as anyone had need (χρείαν, a form of χρεία).^[22]  At first this economic system worked amazingly well (Acts 4:32-35 NET):

The group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one said that any of his possessions was his own, but everything was held in common.  With great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on them all.  For there was no one needy (ἐνδεής) among them, because those who were owners of land or houses were selling them and bringing the proceeds from the sales and placing them at the apostles’ feet.  The proceeds were distributed to each, as anyone had need (χρείαν, a form of χρεία). 

They sold land and houses, assets that could be leased or rented, believing, This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in the same way you saw him go into heaven^[23] soon, in their lifetimes.  I’m not suggesting they acted contrarily to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, but that prompting may have been unique to their time and circumstances.

Jerusalem was destroyed in the lifetimes of many of them, and whatever lands and houses remained went to their Roman conquerors.  Israel had a penchant for arbitrary law (Judges 21:5, Ezra 10:8, Acts 9:1, 2 NET).  Converting lands and houses to cash may have been the only way for believers in Jerusalem to “keep” them.  [Y]ou accepted the confiscation of your belongings with joy, because you knew that you certainly had a better and lasting possession,^[24] the writer of Hebrews acknowledged.

The deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, probably by design, kept the Jerusalem church from becoming a popular, bandwagon-style movement (Acts 5:11-13 NET):

Great fear gripped the whole church and all who heard about these things.  Now many miraculous signs and wonders came about among the people through the hands of the apostles.  By common consent they were all meeting together in Solomon’s Portico.  None of the rest dared to join them, but the people held them in high honor.

The More and more believers in the Lord [who] were added to their number, crowds of both men and women,^[25] were drawn by Jesus, I trust, rather than the glitz and glam of the moment.  But it didn’t keep pace apparently with the conversion and spending of assets: If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacks daily food,^[26] was James’ concern in the Jerusalem church.  At the Jerusalem Council when James, Cephas, and John, who had a reputation as pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, Paul wrote the Galatians, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we would go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.  They requested only that we remember the poor, the very thing I also was eager to do.^[27]

For [Macedonia and Achaia] were pleased to [make some contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem], and indeed they are indebted (ὀφειλέται, a form of ὀφειλέτης) to the Jerusalem saints.^[28]  For if the Gentiles have shared (ἐκοινώνησαν, another form of κοινωνέω) in their spiritual things (πνευματικοῖς, a form of πνευματικός), they are obligated (ὀφείλουσιν, a form of ὀφείλω) also to minister (λειτουργῆσαι, a form of λειτουργέω) to them in material things (σαρκικοῖς, a form of σαρκικός).^[29]

This debt and obligation stem directly from, To [Israel] belong the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.  To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, by human descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever!  Amen.^[30]  Still, Paul called this debt and obligation καρπὸν (fruit): Therefore after I have completed this and have safely delivered this bounty (καρπὸν, a form of καρπός) to them…^[31]  And so I take it for granted that he intended this debt and obligation to be dispatched by love empowered by the fruit of the Spirit much as I wrote elsewhere on the spiritual gift of contributing^[32] (μεταδιδοὺς, a form of μεταδίδωμι).

I’ll write more on that in subsequent essays.  Here, I want to address two different but related issues: 1) I don’t think the communal economy of the Jerusalem church is normative, and 2) I think the debt and obligation to the poor among the saints in Jerusalem was as temporary as that unique situation.  I consider Paul’s own example (Acts 20:33-35 NET):

“I have desired (ἐπεθύμησα, a form of ἐπιθυμέω) no one’s silver or gold or clothing.  You yourselves know that these hands of mine provided for my needs (χρείαις, a form of χρεία) and the needs of those who were with me.  By all these things, I have shown you that by working in this way we must help (ἀντιλαμβάνεσθαι, a form of ἀντιλαμβάνομαι) the weak, and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive (λαμβάνειν, a form of λαμβάνω).’”

And I consider Paul’s teaching (1 Thessalonians 4:9-12; Ephesians 4:28 NET):

Now on the topic of brotherly love you have no need (χρείαν, another form of χρεία) for anyone to write you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.  And indeed you are practicing it toward all the brothers and sisters in all of Macedonia.  But we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, to aspire to lead a quiet life, to attend to your own business, and to work with your hands, as we commanded you.  In this way you will live a decent life before outsiders and not be in need (χρείαν, another form of χρεία).

The one who steals must steal no longer; rather he must labor, doing good (ἀγαθόν, another form of ἀγαθός) with his own hands, so that he may have something to share (μεταδιδόναι, another form of μεταδίδωμι) with the one who has need (χρείαν, another form of χρεία).

And I consider Paul’s understanding of the one new man (Ephesians 2:11-22 NET):

Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh – who are called “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision” that is performed on the body by human hands – that you were at that time without the Messiah, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility, when he nullified in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees.  He did this to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace, and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed.  And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, so that through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.  So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, because you have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.  In him the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

And so I find it extremely difficult to believe that the Holy Spirit intended to re-divide this one new man into a permanent working-class of Gentiles supporting a permanent leisure-class of descendants of Israel because Paul wrote the saints of Macedonia and Achaia that they are indebted to the Jerusalem saints.  For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are obligated also to minister to them in material things.^[33]  I believe that debt and obligation were superseded, once the Jerusalem church was scattered (along with its unique economy), by: Owe (ὀφείλετε, another form of ὀφείλω) no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.^[34]